Life's Simple Joys

Being an OFW has a lot of perks (better paycheck, opportunity to experience new culture and meet new friends, etc etc). However, it sure has lots of disadvantages too. It is a known fact that OFWs have a lot of sacrifices to make, the biggest (AND hardest) of them is leaving family and friends behind. I am really fortunate that even if I am on OFW, my kind (educator)  and place (Jakarta, Indonesia) of work permit me to go home regularly (or at least every 3 months or so) :) Nevertheless, I still miss a lot of things when I am away from my 1st home (Yes, I consider Jakarta as my 2nd home now :)

Let me give you the list of the things that I will MAKE SURE to have/go to when I get to Pinas a few days from now (7 days to be exact). Syempre, family and friends will always be on top of my list that's why I will not include them anymore and just focus on other things :)

1) Puerto Princesa and El Nido, Palawan. I will be going to Palawan with my friends right after spending 2 days in Manila, hehe :) This is my 2nd time to be in Palawan but 1st time in Puerto Princesa and El Nido. I went to Coron last year and fell in love with it! So I am full of hope that I will enjoy this trip and besides, what can possibly go wrong when you have friends with you, right? :)

2) Davao. The (SUPER early as in 5am early!) morning after I get back from Palawan, I, together with Mama, Ameng and Alex, will be spending 4 days in Davao. Literal na airport to airport ang drama ko! :D (Sidenote: I suddenly remember summer of 2010 when I also did airport to airport from Bicol to CDO! Talk about maximizing the vacation!). We will be staying mostly in Samal Island. As for our itinerary, I am letting the Island Garden Resort in Pangubatan's owner surprise us! :) I promise to post an entry about our Palawan and Davao trip once I've actually been to them, hehehe :)

3) Eng Bee Tin's hopia. Back when Alex and I were still in college/ young professionals (Naks! Gumaganon!), he used to bring me Eng Bee Tin as pasalubong (Intsik na intsik lang! Oopsie, no racist remark intended). From J.Ruiz Station (w/c is near his place), he would go to Recto LRT2 station to buy Eng Bee Tin's yummy hopia then go to Marikina :) So see, contrary to what my family and close friends believe, si Alex naman ang nanuyo sa akin! Hahaha! :D Seriously though, Eng Bee Tin has the BEST hopia in the whole wide world (not that I've been to a lot of countries who sell hopia, hehe).

4) Taho. Ika nga sa radyo, kailangan pa ba imemorize yan?! :D I love taho with lots and lots of sago. The suking manong magtataho in our place already knows this and would often joke me of buying sago na lang instead of taho :D

5) Fishball, kikiam and squidball. What they have here in Indonesia is not at par with what we have in Pinas. Sauce pa lang natin e panalo na! :D (Love your own, ehem ehem).

6) Fruits in ice cream (FIC)'s Pistachio. I am nuts about nuts! This plus the fact that you can really taste a LOT of pistachio in every bite of their ice cream makes FIC my all time favorite! This is a big thing for me since I do NOT love sweets! So for me to finish a tub of this ice cream in one sitting only goes to show that IT IS REALLY GOOD (or teka, baka sa taste buds ko lang!) :) I've tried other brands' pistachio flavor (let's not name names, hehe) but FIC WINS hands down!

7) Junk Food. It is such a shame, ano? After reading a lot of posts here about fitness and being healthy, you will see that I actually crave for Pinas' junk foods! They have junk food here but for me, our junk foods taste better :) I may not be an expert when it comes to "real" food but I am an expert when it comes to junk food! Sad but true :(

gawang Pinas! salty but yummy!

well, they also have it here in Jkt BUT the price is almost 3 times! Insane!

8) National Bookstore.It is really true that you will only know the importance of something once you've lost it. Wow! heavy drama! :D Seriously though, I've been having a HARD time looking for books here in Jakarta. Well, they have lots of books but mostly translated in Bahasa Indonesia :( Yes I know that it means positive for their culture but disadvantageous to the likes of me who only knows enough Bahasa Indonesia to not be sod to strangers, hehehe :) Another thing that I miss from NBS are their good stuff like colored pens, notebooks, for an AFFORDABLE PRICE. Things like these are quite pricey in Jakarta. I will really make sure to buy cute and usable stuff from NBS! This is a MUST! :)

i will literally hug you when I get back, NBS! :D

9) Cyma. This is one of my favorite restaurants! Woohoo! :) I don't eat here everyday for the obvious reason that it is quite pricey BUT I always look forward to eating here everytime I go home! The big bonus is they have choices for a semi-pescetarian like ME (semi because I eat ALL seafoods not just fish). I can't wait!!!I always wonder how it is going to be like when I am actually in Greece eating Greek food! Heaven on earth I'm sure!! :D

10) Craving's spinach artichoke.A few Christmases ago when my Tito used to receive LOTS OF PRODUCTS/GIVEAWAYS (that's what you get when you are the editor of People, Events and Products section of the leading newspaper in the country! No names, PDI ehem ehem! :D ), I chanced upon Craving's Spinach Artichoke. Though it looked like it won't taste any good, I still tried it (since I am way past the stage of being fearful when it comes to food) and I SUPER LIKED IT that I couldn't take it off my mind. I am not sure if they are still selling it or if it just available during Christmas season but I intend to finally end my search for it! Hahaha! :D  I might try dining at Craving's Katipunan also if my tummy and budget will cooperate! :)

11) Last but definitely NOT the least, LUTONG BAHAY food! I don't cook. Correction, I STEAM food so technically I do cook, hehe :) My older cousin used to say that I know how to get the taste right everytime I cook. The sad part is that I rarely cook and I need the aid of cookbooks because I can'tseem to remember how to prepare the same dish after a few days! :( Needless to say, I eat out/ order a lot here in Jakarta. I am not totally giving up on cooking because I know that I have it in me (Naks!) and I remember that I actually enjoyed it during those very rare occasions that I actually cooked something :D So maybe, not for now :) When I am hungry and sad (haha!), this is when I really miss my mother's cooking prowess. My mom is Bicolana so though she doesn't cook that often, I can finish the entire bandehado of kanin everytime she cooks because the ulam is super delicious! (Mama, you should read this, hehehe!). This is one of the not-so-perks of living alone, eat out or die! :D

These may sound lame to other people but the small things mentioned above are some of the things that I look forward to. They somehow make my homecoming more "kaabang-abang" :)

I can't wait to be home!!!! Manila, roll out the red carpet for me!!! :D

It is DEFINITELY MORE FUN IN THE PHILIPPINES!!! 

PS: 
1) All the photos are taken from the web. I figured I have to put more photos in my blog or I'll end up having gazillion of words which will make my 2 readers bored to sleep! :D

2) Sorry to disappoint but unlike MOST of the OFW I know, I do not look forward to eating at Jollibee. I  know that most of them have Jollibee as their "first" breakfast in Pinas,I just don't have a lot of options in Jollibee :(